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UX has been a buzzword within businesses for a while now, but as a UX Designer, you need to be able to cut through the gimmicks and understand what are the latest things happening in the world of User Experience. If you’re trying to break into Use...

This Wednesday is Halloween! For many people, it’s a day that conjures up images of scary costumes, Jack-o'-lanterns and trick or treating. But for someone who’s just landed a new job, Halloween could be a scary time for other reasons; saying the ...

Over the last 12 months, I have partnered with a number of businesses across the North helping them to build their Product teams. Whilst consulting and finding out the needs of my clients, which have varied from SME’s to FTSE 250, I found that the...

The world of digital marketing is constantly evolving. As companies adapt to changing customer habits and strive to stay ahead of the competition, new roles emerge year after year. As a result of this fluidity, some digital marketing professionals...

To celebrate our 10th birthday, we sent our Forward Roller Reporters out into the city centre, to find out where the people of Manchester were in their careers 10 years ago and where they see themselves in 10 years’ time! Armed with an iPhone X an...

Did you know it’s National Coding Week? Set up in 2014, it is an entire week where adults can get free access to resources to learn digital skills, including coding. These free resources are available in a load of places such as libraries, schools...

This year is Forward Role’s tenth anniversary and we’ve come a long way from humble beginnings in Bolton, to an award winning, national recruitment agency based in Manchester city centre. Our values have always stood us in good stead, but as our q...

On Friday twelve of our Forward Rollers headed to Cheadle to compete in The Northern Power Hive’s Football Tournament. Eight teams battling it out to be crowned the Recruitment Champions of Football... Unluckily for our second team it wasn’t meant...

We’re thrilled to announce that Forward Role has been shortlisted in five categories at the 2018 Marketing and Digital Recruitment Awards (MADRAs)! This year we’re up to for Best Client Service, Best Candidate Experience, Best Regional Agency and ...

They did it! After weeks of training, yesterday 12 Forward Rollers headed to Cholmondeley Castle in Cheshire to take on the muddiest Tough Mudder course in the UK! With 10 miles and over 20 obstacles to complete, this Tough Mudder course was defin...

In three weeks’ time, 12 Forward Rollers are tackling the muddiest Tough Mudder course in the UK. With 10 miles and over 20 obstacles to complete, it is certainly going to be a challenge! So why are we putting ourselves through this crazy encounte...

We were so pleased to hear recently that the graduate job seeker who's rap-lication to our MD Steve went viral earlier in the year, had secured her first full-time role. Anastasia Glover really impressed Steve when she sent him a job application, ...

You knew it, we knew it, but now it’s official – Manchester has been named the most popular city to live in the UK. Of course we Forward Rollers had no doubt that our beloved city was the best in the country, but it was great to have our own opini...

This month we're proud to share the latest edition of Recruiter Magazine, featuring our very own Steve on the front cover. A few weeks back we invited Recruiter Magazine over to our Manchester HQ, to talk about our Incubator initiative and how we'...

Over the last few years, we’ve seen a substantial rise in what’s become known as “gigging”. The government defines the gig economy as “the exchange of labour for money between individuals or companies via digital platforms that actively facilitate...

Meetings represent those snippets in our day where we have to sit and confront our deepest fear: social interaction. Forward Role's Managing Director Steve Thompson highlights the importance of meetings in an organisation: “Meetings can be useful,...

Last month we celebrated “National Bring Your Dog to Work Day” and loved seeing so many photos of the nation’s favourite pets, gracing offices up and down the country. It is estimated that 44% of UK households have a pet, with the vast majority of...

Starting a new job is scary. No matter what the role, or the organisation, it’s nerve-racking to start again in a new company. At Forward Role, we pride ourselves on our exceptional service and values, but what is it actually like to work here? We...

As a recruiter I’m often faced with ambitious, eager-to-learn design grads asking the same sort of questions: ‘what roles do you have at my level?’ or ‘who’s currently hiring?’ The truth is, more often than not, jobs for Juniors are few and far be...

When it comes to working in an office, we all have our good days and bad days; it’s almost impossible to be fully engaged and passionate 100% of the time. But when you find yourself switching off more often than pressing on, daydreaming more than ...

I’ve been recruiting contract and interim marketing professionals for over 7 years now and I think it’s a brilliant career path for many people. However, it’s not for everyone. On one side it offers a huge variety in your day to day and the projec...

Technology innovation is changing the recruitment landscape, with big players like Google and Facebook already utilising their own algorithms and Machine Learning (ML) to venture into the industry. But what does this mean for recruiters? Can we ad...

In two weeks’ time (Tuesday 5th June) Forward Role will sponsor the Data, Analytics & Insight Leaders Masterclass, at The Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester. As head of our analytics team, here at Forward Role, I’m a huge supporter of ev...

Well, there we have it! The 2017/18 Premier League season has finally come to an end. The Premier League may have been a landslide in the end, but Forward Role’s Fantasy league still had everything to play for up until the final whistle. This seas...

“There is no health without mental health.” – Dr. David Satcher ‘Mental health’, a term often confused with ‘mental illness’, but simply put it’s our emotional, psychological and social well-being. Everybody has mental health, but one in four of u...

We are delighted to hear that Forward Role has been nominated for a national award! You might remember a few weeks back the story of Anastasia Glover, the ambitious graduate who sent our MD a grime rap along with her CV, hoping to bag herself a jo...

Last week, I spent the day at Lancaster University’s Fashion Recruitment Fair, chatting to lots of students about their plans after graduating and giving advice on how to get into the world of fashion. As a fashion buying and merchandising graduat...

Tech. A world full of exciting and innovative technologies and a wealth of progression. But if you look closely you’ll see that at its core, the tech landscape is suffering from a big problem that affects nearly all companies within its industry. ...

L-R: Aimée Buchan, Emma Allison, Zac Donlon and Vicky Walker Emma Allison has been appointed Head of Marketing, Vicky Walker has joined as a consultant in the IT department, Aimée Buchan will boost the e-commerce team, and Zac Donlon adds to the b...

Over the years I’ve seen this scenario happen a number of times… Hirers take a candidate through the whole recruitment process and decide that they definitely want them to join their team! But at the last minute decide to offer a lower salary than...

User experience (UX) has grown significantly over the past 10 years, as people engross themselves with more and more immersive, experiential technologies. For businesses across a whole range of sectors, the race is on to seek innovative UX talent,...

The greatest wealth is health. – Virgil I’m a strong believer that the heathier you are, the better you perform in all areas of life. Considering one third of your life is spent at work, I would say it has a big influence over your mental and phys...

An amazing thing happened at Forward Role this week! A talented grad grabbed our attention by applying for a role with a brilliant, grime rap! Anastasia Glover stopped our Managing Director Steve Thompson in his tracks with a late night, eye-catch...

Specialist Marketing, Digital and IT recruiter Forward Role has marked its tenth birthday by celebrating record growth figures for 2017. The Manchester-based business, which counts Iceland, boohoo.com and missguided.com among its clients, saw turn...

How can we combat the skills gap? In the “'Northern Digital Jobs Strategy Report' 'We Are Tech Up North', Tech City and EY have all put on paper what anyone that has been working in technical recruitment has known for a while; there is a massive s...

Time Out City Life Index has just announced that Manchester is the 7th most exciting city in the world, ranking above Lisbon and Barcelona. Although this won’t come as a surprise for all those that call this vibrant and cultural city home, outside...

By Dan Middlebrook, Recruitment Manager, B2B Marketing Why do we get out of bed and come to work each day? It’s a very basic question, but the answers can be practical, economic, moral, social and even philosophical or religious in essence. We all...

By Josh Pepper- UX Recruitment Consultant Having trouble understanding what all this UX/UI business is all about? Stuck when trying to comprehend what a ‘UX process’ is, or how UI differs to mere visual design? Then fear not, this article will hel...

Leading marketing and digital recruitment specialist strengthens national offering with new members of staff New hires take the Forward Role team to 32, making it one of the largest specialist Marketing & Digital recruiters in the UK – and the big...

What scares you most about your career? Interviews can be terrifying while the thought of giving a public presentation can send shivers down your spine. If these sound familiar, don’t worry, you’re not alone. New research from Forward Role has rev...

The last few months have been busier than a Harry Redknapp transfer window, so it’s nearly Christmas and this is our first Forward Role Fantasy League update of the 2017/18 season! With City opening up a sizeable gap in the Premier League to go 11...

The region as a whole has continued to boom, with exciting growth seen in most of our key sectors, but especially in Tech, Ecommerce, Fintech and Agency clients. We hired 40 people in 6 months for one tech client, which is truly amazing growth! Ma...

Blog by Matt Darwell, B2B Tech Marketing Consultant Here at Forward Role we find the best talent possible to match our client’s needs and in turn, we build rewarding careers for our candidates. It’s a two-way street and when done well, it’s a beau...

National coding week kicks off on the 18th September and as part of this Forward Role will be sponsoring the Django Girls and Rails Girls workshops, held at the Autotrader UK Offices, First Street Manchester on the 23rd September. The Django Girls...

After a fantastic first half of the year, we thought we would take our consultants and support team on a weekend break to Lisbon. This year has been a record breaking year for the company so far and we have a lot to celebrate – surpassing growth a...

Forward Role is proud to be shortlisted in three categories at the 2017 Marketing & Digital Recruitment Awards (MADRAs) for Best Regional Agency, Best SME Recruitment Agency and Best Client Service. The awards recognise recruitment firms that have...

Looking for a new job? Don’t send your CV out for another role until you’ve read this! You’d think writing a CV would be straightforward, but submitting a job application is actually a fine art. Steve Thompson, the Managing Director here at Forwar...

The new Premier League season kicks off this Friday and we can hear the tinkering of Fantasy Football teams throughout the office… The Forward Role Fantasy League has been running for 5 years now and was conquered last year by GB Group’s Head of P...

Leading North West recruiter Forward Role Recruitment has bolstered its marketing and digital recruitment offering in Yorkshire with the appointment of Izzy Khan. Senior Consultant, Izzy joins the team from WeAreAdam and strengthens Manchester-bas...

Forward Role have been on the move ! (Again!) Due to team expansion, our offices on Queen Street have been a tight squeeze for quite some time now. The Forward Role team are thrilled to now be settling in to much larger offices in Croxley House on...

There are many milestones that we all go through during our careers. Our first job interview, getting promoted, and making the decision to leave a role for greener pastures. But one of the most daunting is approaching your boss and asking for a pa...

Digital marketing recruitment specialists, Forward Role recruitment has revealed exactly the kind of employee benefits people really want. 35% of people prefer flexible working - From cutting down stressful commutes to allowing parents time to tak...

Here at Forward Role one of the most common calls we get from HR professionals, Internal Recruiters and Line Managers is a request for some market information on role salaries. Likewise, candidates are often intrigued to hear our thoughts on what ...

n a Premier League season where the champions were crowned and the end of season relegation battle was done and dusted, fortunately the Forward Role Fantasy Football League provided some last day of the season excitement. Long-time leader and Fres...

Why hiring an internal ‘recruiter’ to manage rejected applications could boost brand advocacy. A couple of years ago I was helping to manage a business-critical recruitment project at the Head Office of one of our region’s biggest brands… when the...

Forward Role have been shortlisted as a finalist for Small Recruitment Agency of The Year Award at the National Recruiter Awards 2017. Established in 2002, The Recruiter Awards are the largest recruitment industry event in the UK and are respected...

Here at Forward Role I head up our UX/UI & Digital Design team and get the opportunity to work with a wide spectrum of talented specialists. One question that comes up time and time again is how to make your UX portfolio stand out to a prospective...

For years now the interim market has been steadily growing along with demand for contract and freelance resource. Interims come in many forms – there are those on fixed term contracts vs. those on hourly or daily rates; both employed and self-empl...

Here at Forward Role we had a stellar 2016. We are launching into 2017 as the North’s largest and leading Marketing, Digital, Analytics, IT and Design recruiter, working with client and agency side on both permanent and interim vacancies. We’re ex...

Next week we are delighted to be attending World IA Day on Saturday 18th February at Manchester Metropolitan University. Held at the Business School, the event is shaping up to be a great day for the IA community. So what is IA? To quote Wikipedia...

No matter what position or industry you might have worked in, the skills you accumulate often stay with you as you move on to your next role. These skills are transferable, all-encompassing and are rarely specific to a particular field of work. In...

If you’re over 50 and looking for a new job, a career change, or coming back into the world of work after a period of time in retirement, the prospect of job hunting can seem daunting. Although it’s illegal for employers to discriminate against jo...

They say that December is one of the best times to look for a new job; your competition is starting to wind down into holiday mode whilst the pressure starts to rise for hiring managers looking to fill positions before the end of the year. We’ve j...

At last week’s Marketing and Digital Recruitment Awards, held at the Hilton London Metropole and attended by the best recruiters in the industry, Forward Role were recognised with the ‘Best Regional Agency’ award. The judges commented: ‘In this hi...

As we come to the end of an interesting international break featuring a flattering win over the Scots, an unlucky last minute draw against the Spanish and Wayne Rooney randomly having a few too many beers at someone else’s wedding, we enter Game W...

Around 50 marketing and digital professionals braved the torrential rain and gridlocked traffic in central Manchester to meet for our third Marketing GastroClub hosted at Beef & Pudding. Pudding was certainly the theme of the menu with guests dini...

There were plenty of “Meows” in the Forward Role office last Friday. Why? We had a Kitten Take Over! For a short time in the afternoon the team turned into mush while 7 kittens took over! Our Finance and Operations Manager Lisa melted like butter,...

Forward Role Recruitment is proud to announce that they are finalists in a total of three awards at this year’s prestigious Marketing and Digital Recruitment Awards. The awards reflect a successful year for the company which has seen a significant...

It’s with great excitement that the Forward Role office went into the new football season. A raft of side bets have been placed around the office and we all had our theories on who the form teams and managers would be. We’ve had a new Forward Role...

One could hardly be blamed for considering London to be the fashion capital of the UK. It is, after all, the financial centre of the country as well as being home to numerous designer boutiques and the famous London Fashion Week. In Global Languag...

Our annual Fantasy Football competition for clients, candidates, staff and suppliers is ready to go. We’re keen to find someone to knock last year’s winner, MD Steve Thompson, off the top spot, so if you fancy yourself as the next Pep Guardiola or...

I’ve heard quite a bit about flexible working over the last few weeks. A number of our key clients offer flexible working and an ‘adult’ environment, where as long as the work gets done and everyone is there during ‘core hours’, then start and fin...

It’s an indication of just how busy the North West Digital and Marketing recruitment scene has been this year that Forward Role posted another record half year, with a 42% year on year growth in turnover from January to June 2015 to 2016. And whil...

Who says you need to go to London to succeed in fashion?! After studying in the small city of Preston, it never occurred to me to head to London to start my career. Instead, the dream has always been to live in Manchester. It may not sound like mu...

We recently created a white paper on the next generation of UK unicorns and we had lots of comments that this term was new to many people. So, to save you reaching for your thesaurus or jumping on Google, I’ve chosen eight popular tech start up te...

Last Sunday we arrived in a boisterous, bouncing and mercifully sunny Manchester and made our way across town towards the start point of The Great Manchester Run. I was struck by the sheer scale of the event; I’d heard 35,000 take part, but in add...

It’s been a long hard season since we announced in August 2015 that Forward Role were once again running our annual Fantasy Football competition for clients, candidates, staff and suppliers. Many hours have been wasted on planning, fixture analysi...

I came to enjoy running as an adult circuitously, which is really to say I started to go running as something I thought I should do and not something to be enjoyed. At all. As a child, of course I’d loved tearing around, running, jumping, climbing...

In the late 18th Century, the North West was the driving force behind a new era of economic prosperity for the UK. Fast-forward to 2016, and the region is once again proving to be a hotbed for successful businesses - albeit a very different kind t...

My lovely wife gave birth to our first child (Cooper) in January and as a result I’m tired, really tired. So tired that it took me about 5 minutes to write this sentence. A little unfortunate quirk of my tiredness has been a total degeneration of ...

Your boss may not be Don Corleone but the counter-offer is one offer you probably should refuse! Why? As a recruiter you may consider I have a vested interest in candidates not accepting counter-offers. After all I’m trying to ensure people move j...

Manchester is one of the Creative capitals of the North, which is fantastic if you’re looking for new career opportunities in this space. But in such a vibrant and competitive landscape, how do you stand out? Here are some of my hints and tips. I’...

This week the Forward Role Manchester team moved. Again. In November 2015 we opened our new Manchester office at the top of Spinningfields after an expansion of the team and the addition of our new agency proposition. And now 5 months later, we’ve...

Happy Budget Day! Well happy for some anyway. Today Cowgill Holloways invited a number of financial professionals and business owners to attend a live Budget 2016 event at AJ Bell Stadium, with a panel discussion afterwards. A lot of pre-budget pr...

Working within the digital marketing industry, I find myself constantly learning and trying to keep up to date with an industry that is ever changing and growing! Having been to some brilliant marketing events already this year like ProlificNorthL...

New figures from Forward Role show that women accounted for 53% of the company’s digital placements in 2015 Around 61% of junior jobs were filled by women Three successful females explain how the digital industry is shaping up Big changes are afoo...

There’s no getting away from it, Business to Business or B2B Marketing doesn’t have the most glamourous reputation and a lot of Marketers steer clear for that reason. A bit like working in recruitment, no-one ever dreamt of being a B2B Marketer wh...

Can it really be a coincidence that a week after the FR Football team was royally beaten by Bring Digital, an ex-professional footballer joins as our newest staff member? David Nottage joins from Badenoch & Clark to manage the client-side Digital ...

You get precious little change out of £30,000 when studying towards a degree these days, and that’s just your tuition fees. As such, there’s less room for error when you come to weigh up your university options. Your average student simply cannot ...

A bitterly cold Bolton evening bore witness to the inaugural match between the creative colossus of Bring Digital and the recruitment rapiers of Forward Role. Running a fashionable quarter of an hour late, the Forward Rollers took to the pitch ami...

Over the last year our business has increased dramatically and with an influx of new hires we were bursting at the seams at our Bolton offices so we needed to move to larger premises. Not wanting to move far, we were lucky enough to find a perfect...

Recruitment can be one of the biggest headaches facing most agencies. Having high calibre people fronting your client relationships, or producing the work they pass your way is essential for an agency to grow, but with talent shortages existing in...

Forward Role have expanded their B2B Marketing recruitment offering with the appointment of Managing Consultant, Dan Middlebrook from Blue Skies. Dan started his career in the world of Oil & Gas recruitment and has also worked in Financial recruit...

It is becoming increasingly difficult for companies to engage successfully with consumers by using traditional marketing methods. Many of us rarely watch TV programmes at the time they are broadcast so skip the adverts, or even use download servic...

A belated end of September update for all involved in the Forward Role Fantasy league, and we have a NEW LEADER!!!! Steve Gaughan, Head of Data Science at BPP Professional Education has obviously been crunching some fantasy stats! Either that or a...

We laid down the gauntlet and challenged the digital world to submit their best analogy or meme to explain the difference between UX and UI – a question which continues to trouble the digital world. We got some great entries, making the task of ch...

What scares you the most when you think about your career? Interviews, presentations, pitching; sometimes the fear can seem relentless. To mark the UK’s ‘Face Your Fears Week’, we’ve been researching common worries in the workplace and how to tack...

We’ve all been there… In a position where you’ve jazzed up your CV, sent it out to various employers and recruiters, attended multiple interviews, spent time doing presentations and finally you get to the offer stage. After receiving an offer or m...

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"The team at Forward Role have been an immense help in my search for a new role. I worked with Will who is a great guy, really easy to get on with and was never afraid to just pick up the phone and speak to you - even if there were no updates. Will knew what my interview needed and knew the client well enough to give me the low down - so much so I got the job I wanted! Thanks guys!"

Lauren Stradling

"I've dealt with many a recruitment firm and have to say Forward Role has been the best one I've dealt with. Clearly these guys have made a conscious effort to stand out from the competition culturally and professional. More than anyone, I have to say Paddy genuinely cares about the client and candidate in equal measure. It really has been a pleasure dealing with him."

Nazmeen Malik

"I can only applaud them on how effectively they managed to line up interviews and provide guidance. Their work, ethic and relevant knowledge of the industry is clearly what has helped them create such a brilliant recruitment service. I couldn't have been more impressed with the personal level that Dan and Will went to, in order to understand what I was looking for. I would 100% recommend."